Life on the surface - from enormous telescopes to everyday life

Right here in North Wales we are developing exciting new technologies to create the European Extremely Large Telescope.

Astronomy tells us about the universe and our place in it. We are at the threshold of major discoveries, hopefully seeing for the first time earthlike planets around other stars, galaxies when they first formed, as well as going on to a fuller understanding of the large-scale structure and evolution of the universe. Tackling these challenges means collecting more light, and that needs bigger and better telescopes. Right here in North Wales we are developing exciting new technologies to create the European Extremely Large Telescope. When built, this will be the largest and most sensitive in the world. The talk will show how these technologies can also impact on more down-to-earth applications, ranging from improving the lifetime of human joint-implants, to the next generation of microchips. Perhaps the most exciting is the potential to solve the world’s energy-crisis, copying what goes on inside the stars that we observe with our telescopes!

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